Maria Stepanova "Focus" Moscow: New Publishing House, 2024

Maria Stepanova's new book can be classified as both fiction, given its artistic invention and plot, and autofiction, given the heroine's recognizable biographical author. In the tradition of Stepanova's most famous nonfictional philosophical text, "In Memory of Memory," the story of "Focus" unfolds against a recognizable (alas) backdrop. A chance stopover in a small European town triggers two chains of events in the life of the renowned writer M.—episodes related to her trip and associations related to her past. The latter proves to be the most important. The cancellation of a planned meeting with readers and the forced severance of contact with the outside world force M. to pause in her personal time and candidly list a number of her own cancellations over the past nearly three years. Most of these are the result of the trauma of war.
“When the life of the writer M. herself changed, and changed without any of her participation or even permission, she was also about fifty and she was still waiting for the moment when she would only need to close her eyes to feel at home.”

